mercredi 8 février 2017

Assad tells Belgian reporter EU merely obeys ‘US master’ on Syria

We’ve been to Aleppo, we’ve seen the destruction…how do you see the way forward for peace nowadays after Astana?

President Assad:

If we want to talk about how to see the peace – it is not related
mainly to Astana, it is something much bigger: how can we stop the
flowing of the terrorists towards Syria or in Syria? How can we stop the
support from regional countries like Turkey, Gulf states, or from
Europe like France and UK, or from the US during the Obama
administration? If we deal with that title, this is where we can talk
about the rest, about the political procedure. Astana is one of the
initiative(s) during this war on Syria, and it’s about the dialogue
between the Syrians.

Now it’s too early to judge Astana. The first one was positive
because it was about the principles of the unity of Syria, about the
Syrians deciding their future, how can you implement this communique?
That’s the question. And I think we are going to see an Astana 2 and so
on. So the peace is two things: fighting terrorists and terrorism,
stopping the flowing of terrorists and every kind of logistical support,
and second, dialogue between the Syrians to decide the future of their
country and the whole political system. These are the headlines about
how to see the future of Syria.

Reporter:

We have seen many breaches in the ceasefire. Would you consider the ceasefire still upholding or is it dead?

President Assad:

No it’s not dead, it is…and it’s natural in every ceasefire anywhere
in the world, in every war in any conflict to have these breaches. It
could be sometimes on an individual level, it doesn’t mean there’s (a)
policy of breaching of (the) ceasefire by government or any other party,
and this is something we can deal with on a daily basis, and sometimes
on an hourly basis, but till this moment, the ceasefire is holding.

Reporter:

In the fight against (the) terror group Daesh, do you think all means are justified?

President Assad:

It depends on what do we mean by all means, we have to be…

Reporter:

Literally all means…

President Assad:

Yeah but I don’t know what the means that are available to tell you
yes, all means, so I don’t know what all means, but if you want to talk
about military means, yes ofcourse, because the terrorists are attacking
the people. I’m not only talking about ISIS. ISIS and al-Nusra and all
the al-Qaeda affiliated groups within Syria. When they attack Syrians
and killing civilians, and beheading people and destroying properties –
private and public – and destroying the infrastructure, everything in
this country…our constitutional duty and legal duty as (a) government
and as (an) army and as state institutions is to defend the Syrian
people. It is not an opinion, it’s a duty. So regarding this, you can
use every mean in order to defend the Syrian people.

Reporter:

But we have seen the destruction in Aleppo – you have seen the images
as well. Was there no other way to do it than in such a…or (sic) way?

President Assad:

Actually since the beginning of the crisis or the war on Syria we
used every possible way. We didn’t leave any stone unturned in order to
bring people to the negotiating table. But when you talk about the
terrorists…when you talk about terrorists, when you talk about al-Qaeda,
when you talk about al-Nusra and ISIS, I don’t think anyone in this
world would believe that they are ready for dialogue, and they always
say they’re not. They have their own ideology, they have their own
way-path. They don’t accept anything (that) could be related to (a)
civil state or civil country. They don’t. And I think you know as (a)
European about this reality. So no, making dialogue with al-Nusra &
al-Qaeda is not one of the means, but, if somebody wants to change his
course on the individual levels, we are ready to accept him as a
government and give him amnesty when he goes back to the normal life and
give up his armament.

Reporter:

The Belgian government is contributing in the fight against Daesh.
There are six F-16 fighter planes in the fight against Daesh. Are you
grateful to the Belgian government for that contribution?

President Assad:

Let me be frank with you: when you talk about contribution in the
operation against ISIS – actually there was no operation against ISIS.
It was (a) cosmetic operation. If you want to talk about (the) American
alliance against ISIS, it was only an elusive alliance, because ISIS was
expanding during that operation. At the same time that operation is
(an) illegal operation, because it happened without consulting with or
taking the permission of the Syrian government, which is a legitimate
government. And it’s a breaching of our sovereignty. Third, they didn’t
prevent any Syrian citizen from being killed by ISIS. So what are we
grateful for? To be frank: no.

Reporter:

You have stated several times that it is up to the Syrian people, it
is up to the constitution to decide who their leadership should be, who
their president should be. If the Syrian people would decide for a new
leadership, would you consider to step aside?

President Assad:

If the Syrian people choose another president, I don’t have to choose
to be aside, I will be aside, I will be outside this position, that’s
self-evident, because the constitution would put (a) president, and the
constitution would take him out according to the ballot box and the
decision of the Syrian people. Ofcourse that’s very natural. Not only
because of the ballot box, because if you don’t have public support, you
cannot achieve anything in Syria, especially in a war. In a war what
you need – the most important thing – is to have public support in order
to restore your country, to restore the stability and security. Without
it you cannot achieve anything. So yes ofcourse.

Reporter:

Mr President, I am 43 years old, if I would have been born in Syria,
there would always have been an Assad in executive power. Can you
imagine a Syria without a member of the Assad family in executive power?

President Assad:

Of course, we don’t own the country. My family doesn’t own the country
to say that only Assad should be in that position. That’s self-evident.
And this could be by coincidence, because President (Hafez) Assad
didn’t have an heir in the institution to be a successor. He died, I was
elected – he didn’t have anything to do with my election when he was
president.I didn’t have any position in the government. If he wanted me
to be a heir, he would have put me somewhere, given me a responsibility.
I didn’t have any responsibility actually. So it’s not as many in the
media in the West use to say since my election that he was succeeded by
his father or his father put him in that position. So yes Syria (is)
owned by the Syrians, and every Syrian citizen has the right to be in
that position.

Reporter:

Do you think the European Union or even NATO can play a role in like rebuilding the country, in rebuilding Syria?

President Assad:

You cannot play that role while you are destroying Syria because the
EU is supporting the terrorists in Syria from the very beginning under
different titles: ‘humanitarian’, ‘moderate’, and so on, actually they
were supporting al-Nusra and ISIS from the very beginning, they were
extremists from the very beginning. So they cannot destroy and build at
the same time.

First of all they have to take (a) very clear position regarding the
sovereignty of Syria, stopping supporting the terrorists, this is where
the Syrian would – I say would – accept those countries to play a role
in that regard. But in the meantime if you ask any Syrian the same
question they would say they don’t accept those countries that supported
the people who destroyed our country, we don’t want them to be here.
That’s what I think.

Reporter:

Do you think Belgian can play a role in Syria?

President Assad:

Let me talk about the European political position in general. Many in
this region believe that the European do not exist politically. They
only follow their master the American. So the question should be about
the American, and the European will follow and will implement what the
American want. They don’t exist as (an) independent state, and Belgian
is part of the EU.

Reporter:

There is a new administration in Washington with Trump in power. What
do you expect from it? Are you looking to work closely together?

President Assad:

What we heard…a statement by Trump during the campaign and after the
campaign is promising regarding the priority of fighting the terrorists,
and mainly ISIS. That’s what we’ve been asking for during the last six
years. So I think this is promising. We have to wait – it is still early
to expect anything practical, it could be about the cooperation between
the US and Russia that we think is going to be positive for the rest of
the world including Syria. So as I said it is still early to judge it.

Reporter:

If you look back on the last couple of years, are there any things that you regret?

President Assad:

Every mistake could be a regret by any individual…

Reporter:

Have you made mistakes?

President Assad:

As a human…I have to make mistakes to be human, otherwise I’m not a human.

Reporter:

What would you consider a mistake?

President Assad:

A mistake (is) when you either take a wrong decision, or make wrong
practice. It depends on the situation. But if you want to talk about the
crisis as I understand from your question, the three decisions that we
take from the very beginning is to fight terrorism, and I think it’s
correct; is to make dialogue between Syrians – I think it’s correct; to
respond to every political initiative, whether it’s genuine or not, and I
think it’s correct; and actually we supported the reconciliation
between the Syrians, and I think it’s correct. Anything else could be
trivial – you have a lot of things regarding the practice, regarding the
institutions, you always have mistakes.

Reporter:

If you look back do you think this war was avoidable?

President Assad:

No, because there was bad intention regarding the different countries
like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, France, UK, and the US, in order to
destabilise Syria. So it wasn’t about the Syrians. That doesn’t mean
that we don’t have many flaws before the war and today, as a country
that allow many of those countries to mess with our country. I’m not
excluding – I’m not saying it’s only about them, but they were the ones
who took the initiative in order to run this war, so I don’t think it
was avoidable.

Reporter:

You have just had a visit from a Belgian parliamentary delegation
with Mr Dewinter and Mr Carcaci, do you consider them as friends?

President Assad:

The most important (thing) about those visit is not to be friends. As
a politician you don’t come to Syria to visit your friend, you come to
Syria to see what’s going on.

Reporter:

Do you see them as political allies?

President Assad:

No because…no, they are not my allies at all – they are coming here
not for that reason. They are here in order to see what’s going on. They
are the allies of the Belgian people. They came here because the
government, the Belgian government, like many European governments, are
blind today, they have no relation with this country on every level, so
they don’t see what’s going on, they cannot play any role. So now the
only eye that you have are the delegations that’s coming from your
country, and this is one of them, this is one of the eyes that your
government could have, and you could have many other eyes and
delegations coming to Syria. So they’re not my allies, they’re not
coming here for me, they’re coming here to see the situation, and I’m
one of the players in the Syrian conflict. It’s natural to meet with me
to hear what’s my point of view.